This invention relates to an apparatus to assist persons with impaired eyesight, low vision or other reading difficulties in reading or viewing an object.
In assisting those with low vision or impaired eyesight to view an object or read text, it can be useful to employ magnification and/or image enhancement. This can be done through different types of devices ranging from a simple hand-held magnifying glass to a machine which employs a camera for capturing the object and a screen for displaying an electronic representation of the object. The electronic representation can show the image magnified, with better contrast, different colors, inverted text and/or different brightness.
Generally, in the type of machine which displays an electronic representation of the object, the object is placed on a support, in front of the camera. The object is then manually moved with respect to the support and the camera so that the camera captures different parts of the object, and the screen subsequently displays the part being captured. The magnification level can typically be changed, resulting in less of the object being displayed on the screen when a large amount of magnification is desired. When a large amount of magnification is required, the object has to be moved around a lot in relation to the support and the camera in order to view the whole object.